Are loud car stereos legal?

Q: Are loud car stereo systems legal? I have seen a police car next to a ridiculously loud car stereo system, one that shakes everything within 500 feet, and I was amazed that the officer did not ticket the driver.

A: “To answer your question, yes, loud (stereos are) technically in violation of the noise ordinance,” Seattle police spokesman Mark Jamieson said. “Most often an officer, if there is a complaint, would tell the driver to turn it down.

“Most people comply with that.”

Seattle police respond to hundreds of noise complaints each year.

In many cases, Jamieson said “the person responsible for the noise is not aware of the discomfort they are causing others, and the complaint can be resolved with an order from the officer that the unreasonable noise must stop.”

It is unlawful for any person knowingly to cause or make, or for any person in possession of property knowingly to allow or originate from the property, unreasonable noise which disturbs another, and to refuse or intentionally fail to cease the unreasonable noise when ordered to do so by a police officer or, in the case of noise described in subsection A of this section, when ordered to do so by any of the following: a police officer, an animal control officer, or, in the case of a pet daycare center as defined in chapter 23.84A of this Code, any employee of the Department of Planning and Development authorized by the director of that Department.